“Not to interrupt, but how much lead-time do you guys need right now?”

It was Saturday afternoon, snow was starting to blow sideways outside, and brother and sister Chris and Laura Bruns were enjoying a low-stress soft opening of their long-in-the-works project, Factotum Brewhouse.

The question was from a customer, but the twist at Factotum is this: That bearded dude may be the person responsible for the next beer on the chalkboard.

Westminster Brewing Company has won the race to become that Denver suburb’s first independent craft brewery and will celebrate its grand opening this weekend with a lineup of traditional styles and English-style cask ales paired with a strong community focus.

The 7-barrel production brewery occupies a small light industrial building at 7655 W 108th Ave, Unit 600 and its head brewer is Brian Bissell, a longtime homebrewer whose professional brewing resume includes a stint at CB and Potts.

Factotum Brewhouse is slated to open in September (Matt Phillips, The Denver Post)

Factotum Brewhouse is slated to open in Denver’s Sunnyside neighborhood this coming September. The tap room and brew space will offer homebrewers a chance to use professional equipment to brew their own beer.

Christopher and Laura Bruns, a brother-sister team, came up with the idea for a combination tap room and brewhouse over a long dinner. The idea is that someone who brews beer at home can work with Factotum to take their craft brewing up a notch.

The Bruns siblings thought homebrewers would find the ability to use professional equipment intriguing and, hopefully, inspiring.

[media-credit name=”provided by Fate Brewing ” align=”alignright” width=”270″][/media-credit] Fate Brewing occupies a huge space that was the longtime home of a Mexican restaurant.

Almost all the ingredients are in place for Boulder’s soon-to-open Fate Brewing Co.: an owner with a solid track record at a craft beer-centric pub, an experienced brewer with medals to his credit, a successful round of fundraising and a stylishly renovated large space in a good location.

What owner Mike Lawinski did not anticipate was another brewery opening in Arizona with the same name.

The proprietors of the two Fate Brewing Cos. say they started developing their ideas about the same time and didn’t discover their conundrum until about eight-and-a-half months later.

The words “pinup calendar” probably conjure images of bare-chested firefighters. Or something like that. If there are any beer bellies lurking in a new 2013 calendar spotlighting a dozen Colorado craft breweries, they are tucked safely away (or being sucked in) by fully clothed models.

“We had so many people who like craft beer ask us to make a craft beer calendar, which we thought was a great idea because there are so many great breweries in our state,” said company co-founder Kelsi Nagy. “The aim is to connect people with their local food producers.”

When Shawn Sanborn purchased the real estate of the Irish Pub and Brewery in Pueblo seven years ago, skeptics pushed back against his idea to brew and sell craft beer in such a blue-collar town.

It took a couple of years, but Shamrock Brewing Co. is now pouring plenty of Extra Plain Porter for locals and experiencing double-digit sales growth, said Sanborn, who owns a real estate and development company in Denver.

Not surprisingly, the brewery gets plenty of calls for kegs around St. Patrick’s Day. It has a fairly rare commodity: a craft alternative to green beer and Guinness on one of the year’s biggest drinking days.

Our new iPad app serves as a guide to metro Denver’s bountiful breweries, beer bars and bottle shops, the holy trinity of craft beer enjoyment for followers and fans. Download the app for iPad .
Next time you head for a beer in Boulder, don’t forget your friend, Beers of Boulder and Boulder County, an iPad app from the Daily Camera. Download the app for iPad .

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In Colorado, our pint glasses overflow with excellent beer. New breweries, new batches, festivals every other week. How lucky are we? First Drafts is The Denver Post's beer blog aimed at helping you keep tabs on the state's ever-expanding craft beer culture. We offer a mash of news, event coverage, homegrown stories, tasting notes and tips to help you imbibe. Expert drinker or homebrewer? Let us know what you're loving about Colorado's beer scene. Not sure exactly what a firkin is? No worries, let us be your guide. Go ahead. Belly up and drink it in!